Okay. When I sell my business, I want the best tax on investment advice. I want to help my kids and I want to give back to the community. Ooh.
Then it's the vacation of a lifetime. I wonder if my own office has a forever setting. An IG Private wealth advisor creates the clarity you need with plans that harmonize your business, your family, and your dreams. Get financial advice that puts you at the center.
Find your [email protected] how old are you? 35. I've reached basically the 1% of the 1%. Musically, success wise.
There's other things to scratch, without a doubt. So what are those things? There's real talk. Nothing can fuck it up.
Nothing. My brain's ability to come up with ridiculous ideas is also the thing that helps me write songs. What the fuck you most want to do. You've already done that once.
Sometimes it's harder to do that again after the big win. Everybody out there watching. I think the hard part is this part. It's actually the next part.
Who comes, watches, directed a diaper brand. The diapers have to be solid, you know, have to be solid. You have to understand why that's so easy. You have to do it 12 times a year.
You can do it anywhere. It's a couple hours. You're crippled by opportunity. How tapped into your soul are you that you want to actually do authentic things that are in the face of conflict to the fan base or where you're currently at is a great question.
I'm on the board of Bojangles. I've never liked anything more. That's the best thing I've heard in the last week. Probably is.
I've been preaching it for three years. This is the Gary Vee audio experience. This dude. No way.
Yeah. What's going on? March. March 20th.
How you feeling? Good. I got my third baby coming in February, so I'm trying to get a big year. Oh, man, it's gonna be crazy.
For sure. It's gonna be busy. Listen, I'm super flattered that you connect with the content. I just wanna say thank you.
Of course, man. Yeah. Glad to be here. I'm excited.
Excited, yeah. Anything you want to J on. Anything that's on your mind, dude. I'm with you, brother.
Whatever. What? What? So going into this chapter.
How old are you? 35. It's amazing. Yeah, it's not bad.
Not a bad age. No, it's a great age. Especially to have this level of professional success, family success, like, and have your whole life still in Front of you. Yeah.
I'm sure at some level that's got you really thinking about things differently. Yes. Oh, tremendously so. Yeah.
Because you're kind of like, well, I can almost go anywhere from here at this point. 100,000. Yeah. You keep going down the road or you could.
I don't know. Not that I'm like trying to do something crazy, but, you know. No, I think it's an end thing. Yeah.
It's like, you know, it's not like I'm just got my first hit. I'm 40. You know what I mean? Yeah.
A lot of my favorite artists growing up, breakout years, like when they're 36. Yeah, of course. You know, I'm like 10 years in. Yeah, of course.
You know, it's crazy. Are you thinking about other things you want to accomplish and tackle? I mean, I think there's. It's always like, how could I, you know, say somewhat in my lane.
Right. Like, I'm a big fan of that. Like, I'm a big fan of, like, authenticity. Like, being anything I do, feeling authentic is important to me, but it's also like, how can I.
How can I. Or anything that you're authentically interested in that you are concerned that if you do it, the world wouldn't think it's authentic, but it's authentic to you. Let me tell you why I'm asking that. When I was red hot as a businessman, this is a serious business fan, I was like, fuck, man, I want to garage sale videos.
People were like. And I knew, I knew that the everyday man and woman were going to fucking love it. But what I knew ended up happening, which was the bougie. 5% of the biggest players in the world were going to look heavily down on it.
Sure. And for me, like, the friends, like, trying to build up like I do, I do a lot of. I resonate with what you're talking about because I think I have incredible courage to do shit that my fans, the business world, and sometimes and oftentimes people in my inner circle don't understand why I would do that. And the only reason I do it is because I authentically want to.
Right, right, exactly. So the question becomes, like, how deep down the authentic tunnel do you want to go? Right? Like, I'll give you a silly one.
If you collected miniature dolls, right? And you're like, I just fuck with them. You see my grandma, I fuck with that. But you're fucking equal to.
You're like, fuck, man. Right? So I think that's. That's the actual Real question, brother.
Like, it's easy to say you want to go down, do authentic things. Yeah. What's hard is how tapped into your fucking soul are you that you want to actually do authentic things that are in the face of conflict to the fan base or where you're currently at is a great fucking question. Yeah.
It's like where, like you're almost like you want it to be authentic. And that word sometimes in your mind you think you know what is. I think it's a super fan that's trying to break the ball on me. But it's like, yeah, I think there's sometimes when you say, like, as an artist, if you say I want to do this authentic thing, you may mean saying that I want to do something that I want to do without people pushing back.
Yes. That's what people assume. Authenticity. It perfectly fits my brand already.
You're like, hey, kind of with hunting, I'm going to do a bow and arrow brand. People like. And it was like, yeah, but it's like. But it's a thing you actually want to do, not the first thing.
Right. By the way, this is why I fuck with Lil Wayne so much. Weezy deserves the most question. At his height of fucking being cool again, he's like, I'm fucking making a rock album.
Exactly. Like something that universally people fucking hate it. Right? Yeah.
And I watched that the whole time. Like, this fucking guy's the best in the game because he just wants to live his. By the way, that's narrow. He did that within his genre.
Like, he did a music thing that was a little left field. Sure. I'm talking about like starting a peanut butter company. Right?
Exactly. Like, you know what I mean? Or becoming a late night host or a stand up comic. Or starting a diapers brand.
Like, if I went headline like Luke Combs watches direct to the super diaper brand, you'd be like, huh? And I would be like, I. Gary Vaynerchuk would be like, I fucking get it. Right.
The 8 billion of them would be like, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah. The diapers would have to be. Would have to be solid.
You know what I mean? But anyway, I think that's where you're at. You're crippled by opportunity. Camo diapers.
You're crippled by opportunity. You can literally do anything. Certainly now the question becomes this chart of opportunity. You're at the height now, and I've sensed this from you through our interactions, through what I said is happening here.
What I'm passionate about happening here. There's the opportunity. You know that. I know you want to go all in on authenticity.
Yeah. And I feel like, personally, my hunger in this moment is to push you even further down it, right? Like, chase the thing that the actual real thing, as if none of this actually happened. It's day one.
We went. We're just. You're my friend's younger brother and you're sitting here right now being like, I'm fucking 35. Right.
I got nothing going on. What the fuck do I do? And I say to you what the fuck you most want to do. What do you want to do?
Right. The good thing is you've already done that once. True. That's true.
You actually pulled it off. That happened to you. You really did it like that. And you really did it like, you did it.
You took it. So now I'm saying. And you might feel this. I don't know.
You like that Sometimes it's harder to do that again after the big win than even when you have everybody out there who's watching right now. They think the hard part is that this part, it's actually the next part. Right. Like starting anew, basically.
Correct. And yeah, for sure. Because you're going, oh, I'm in this situation. I've reached basically this ratified air of like the 1% of the 1% musically success wise that you can possibly.
And you can play that for the next 65 years. In your 60s, you'll be playing the classics probably like everyone else. Maybe not. Maybe you have the capacity to reinvent, but there's other things to scratch.
Oh, yeah, no, without a doubt. So what are those things? Like, real talk? Yeah, I mean, you know, it doesn't be fully clear.
What are the kind of things that bounce in your head like, yo, that'd be fucking dope, or I wish I could, because again, I think what's happening is there's this block of, like, here's the real thing you want to do. But you're. You're. I've watched you, like, everybody, like, from afar.
I know, because I see you differently. I know that you're smart. What I mean by that is the way I. No, no, but the way, like, I.
Most humans on earth would analyze you, analyze you from a music place. I don't at all. I view you from a brand building, community building. That's my angle.
Which means I know that when you're thinking about the best things you could be doing, you're being smart and thinking about how it impacts the music, because that's the fucking that's the cash cow. I'm asking you to not do that for five minutes or five months and get into a place of knowing the truth that I know, which is nothing can fuck it up. Right? Nothing.
Right. I think for me it would be, you know, I think about things that I'm passionate about or, you know, I like to, you know, I would like to use my platform for good, I think. Right. So that's a top thing for me.
So I think from there what you need to do is define what you think is good versus what everybody else thinks is good. So a lot of people come to me for the last decade as I have a platform and they think what's good is to me talk on issues that they're passionate about. What I think is good is building up people's self esteem so that we don't fight about issues. Right, everybody, I hope you enjoying the podcast right now.
Make sure you follow the podcast. That's why I'm interrupting. Let's keep going on this show, but follow the podcast. They'll make my mom super happy, everybody.
You know what I mean? So you gotta decide what good is for you. Yeah, I mean, for me it would be. It would be like.
It would be mental health for young people. Great. How much content do you make about that? I mean, zero at this point.
I mean, I've talked about it openly a lot, so I. Let's talk. We're giving you the easiest thing, Layup City is for you to start a podcast that you put out once a month. Sure.
Where you walk in and you have someone else sit in and you kind of interview jam. Just like we're doing now. Around this. Yeah, that's a great idea.
Why that's so easy. You have to do it 12 times a year. You can do it anywhere. It's a couple of hours, it gets fully filmed, then you get hundreds of pieces of content, you put it into the world and you will massively impact people's lives.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I agree. I think it's a wonderful idea to have the, you know, like you're saying is using some of what you already have to facilitate the things that you want or the impact that you have would be, for me, the opportunity to directly reach out to artists with a similar size platform of similar influence, have them open up to young people as well and say, well, look at what artists A, B and C were able to accomplish in spite of. And I would say yes.
And other people from other genres to broaden conversations. Exactly. You know what I mean? And it's like, I think I've heard so many people reach and I talk about my OCD stuff, and I've battled since I was a child, basically.
Right. Like, that's the. Some of the most engagement I get in my direct messages or comments is people saying, my child has this thing and you talked about it, or it's the child and I have this thing. Can I ask you a question?
Sure. How much of that OCD do you think is also the magic that created all the success? I don't think. I don't think that any of it is, but I think that it comes in conjunction with.
Because the particular form of OCD that I have is predicated off basically, like, thoughts. Right. Most OCD is based off of just thoughts. Right.
It's not all. And so almost my brain can come up with these thoughts that provide me with stress and anxiety, and then it becomes an obsessive loop. Right. So those.
My brain's ability to come up with ridiculous ideas is also the thing that helps me write songs. But it's like, in some cases, I think it's. It's your curse. 100% in some ways, yes.
I think it always personally, subjectively, who's someone who spent a lot of time of his life thinking about these things, researching these things? I think all of it. And then I think once one stance. Notice what your natural correct answer was versus, like, my actual answer to is all of it.
Right. And then I wonder, once one puts that in their mind, that what that then does to when the darker or the negative answers start to facilitate, when your relationship with it is that you love it because it gave you all of the things you most love. I wonder if it mitigates its momentum to get to a place. Yeah, yeah, it's.
I mean, I think there's. That's the thing that I feel the most passion towards, because something that has had. It's been such a, like, cornerstone of my life. For better or for worse.
Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's a foundation. It's like, part of my, like, entire identity. The first point is like, it's, you know, I could not push you harder to do a podcast tonight.
12 episodes. Commit to it. No, I mean, I would love to do that, honestly, I really would. And it's the best.
And by the way, who wouldn't know what a list celebrity, even let alone someone who's not, wouldn't love to get an email that says, hey, would love to have you on. By the way, if you do anywhere can you use your computer from anywhere? Yeah, of course. I mean, I'm not even like, what's good for Luke versus others is like, he doesn't need this to be anything.
This is not a monetizable event. He's got more T shirts in an hour on Shopify than the sponsorship on the podcast. This is a nonsense. This is not from a business lens.
This is an end consumer lens. I think there's no, there's no big win. I don't really want to do it because of his platform, but I think the subject matter, there's no bigger win for an artist. Because here's the thing is like, you, right, like you start out, quote, unquote, like, listen, I'm saying I was when I started.
I'm just in a different situation, right? But there's a million people out there who see any, any celebrity or musician or they're like, well, that guy, he's totally different. He's changed you. It's a way to one impact young people who have the same problems, which is the number one positive of this potential idea.
The selfless part is that the selfish part is it also goes, what better way to humanize yourself if you're a Lady Gaga or whatever it is? You know what I mean? No. Why podcasts are interesting is to your point, everyone, most people at some point along their journey will start to allude to it or tell you the truth.
Most. Yeah. To your point, what, what this new medium of podcast allows is a two and a half hour conversation about it, right? You know this, you've done this all like a 25 minute interview with Vogue or the Wall Street Journal or USA Today or Fox News or cnn.
Like, you can't get deep, right? And you're trained and you're thinking a certain way, but you being vulnerable will allow them to be more vulnerable. And both of you, in that story, someone's going to say something that is literally gonna save someone's life. One of the biggest reasons I still make content is because I do that people do, right?
Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, brilliant, to be quite honest. You know, like, I come from a place of real love and like real hope to help. Yeah.
And all you're saying is that right now. Exactly. That's the type of. So that's.
Okay, so that's on the give back spirit, soul. What about, what about being a builder and a grower? Like, what about from a, from more of a selfish scratching your itch instead of giving back. Is there anything you want to accomplish in your career professionally outside of music that you're pondering that's outside of music.
I'm just curious. I mean, I don't know that there's anything that jumps out to me right now that's like, oh man, I would love to be an Olympic power lifter. You know what I mean? Like there's nothing that's like right in front of me that's like, oh yeah, this is the thing.
You know what I meant? Power lift. No, I need some, I need some peptides for sure. That's what peptides, that's the new buzzword for hobbies.
Like what are your. What's your interest? Like a sports travel food? Like what's your role look like there?
I mean I'm a huge football guy. I would love to be involved in, you know, whatever sports my children want to do. I mean as far as coaching, you know, obviously like I'm not, you know, I'm not out to build some multi billion dollar. What about when you were a kid, what was your 15?
Carolina Panthers. That's like first time in 10 years in the playoffs. We're still 15 or draft for my Jets. Tough times right now, bro.
Literally the jets have not been playoffs in 15 years. The second biggest route now that you guys made it this year is five. All 31 of the teams in the NFL have made it within the last five. So who's five?
Who's your team? Six or seven teams that are five. Raiders. Yeah, I think Raiders won.
Honestly, I'm like still hits Giants. I think. No, we may. I actually don't want him.
I like the kid, but I don't. I have a feeling. I don't think his. Yeah, I just saw it.
I mean I'm so pumped for you. She's going, I'm right after this, guys. And like this has been the last 30, 45th years of the program. Obviously there was that golden year in basketball, but never in football.
I would walk to Tokyo. You can't overstate. The turnaround is like so happy. You can't.
That's why I'm happy for you with the Panthers or the Browns or the Lions. These franchises that don't have anything, they're the ones that are always easy. For me it's the ones like for example, the Bulls, they've been bad for a long time, but I'm still not over how good they were in the 90s. I'm about to be bad another 30 years.
Like the Patriots. I'm so pissed about this Patriots thing. Drake may thing I'm an Alan Bryce, but we rep. I have a sports agency.
We rep a lot of football players. We, we. We rep Matt Paradis, who played center for you guys. We have your left tackle.
Yeah, so we have your left tackle. So I like. I'm also. Oh, you might like this.
I'm on the board of Bojangles. I've never liked anything more. That's the best thing I've heard in the last week, probably. Listen, this is the beginning of great friendship.
I'll give you my number. You guys, you know, I know you've been. You guys have, but. And Mike always does represent my truth.
However, I don't need people in between. We're just doing that because of how busy I am. But if there is anything, the new album, if you get serious about the podcast, like how help you find people, random shit. You see something in your feed that I'm a part of that you're intrigued by or want to learn about.
I'll give you an example. Right now, I'm going ballistic. Talking about live shopping on social media. So the QVC stuff on social.
If you guys were talking about, like, hey, like, if we need to figure it out, because we do want to sell unlimited merch that way. Because we don't like the way it's going now. I expect after today's meeting that we get the first call and I'm happy to give everything I got. Sure.
Well, appreciate it, man. Thank you. Thank you so much, man, for watching. Yeah.
Let us help. Yeah. We know it uncomfortably well. I like that.
Are you going? Are you busy or are you going to try both? The cloud. Yeah, I gotta go and be the kids.
Nice. We'll get the Rams. We beat the Rams already. Yeah.
But listen, that scares me. I'm happy. It's tough to be the team twice. It's tough to be a really good team.
Yeah. Tough to beat the Ghost, right? For sure. Like the team with the potential mvp.
I love your qb. He's such a dude. He's. I mean, he had a match last year and came back.
It was like a different guy. He's a different guy. Stepped onto the feet and he's small. Like, he's like Breeze, too.
Took a few minutes. Breeze was small, man. I met Breeze and. On a golf course in California and I told him he ruined my childhood because he was on the Saints.
Yeah. I was like, you just beat us all the time. Pleasure. Anyway, if you enjoyed this podcast, please go back and look at the prior episodes.
They're loaded. I appreciate your attention, and thanks for being part of this journey. See you later.